Can Pakistan afford Wahab Riaz's scattergun inconsistency?

[Savak]

He is now back to his scattergun garbage self. This is what he does, he has one good game, goes back to being mediocre for the next 3-4 games, gets dropped, comes back and comes back with a bang and then repeat.

He singlehandedly lost us the game yesterday and was the worst bowler on display. He does not show his experience consistently enough. I believe the team management persists with him because of his late order hitting abilities as well

 

[ElRaja]

the question is more what is the potential return given hes already closer to 40 than 30. rather have hasnain at 20 getting hit around the park in the hope he improves than wahab doing this for a year then retiring.

 

[Mamoon]

I was told about a dozen times that he has “improved a lot over the last two years”.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. He will always be a liability on proper batting surfaces with no abrasion in the surface to aid reverse-swing.

 

[shaz619]

Why not, he has put his head down and kept his mouth shut unlike Amir...

 

[YousafTheBeast]

First it was Amir, now it’s Wahab and once Wahab goes everyone who backed the likes of Musa and Husnain will finally come to the realisation that they aren’t good enough either.

 

[Third Man]

I was told about a dozen times that he has “improved a lot over the last two years”.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. He will always be a liability on proper batting surfaces with no abrasion in the surface to aid reverse-swing.

Agree with this. It's should be pretty clear to the management by now if the pitch isn't an abrasive & dry one and these drop-in pitches aren't, he is a boundary giving machine. We've seen that many times.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

If Wahab didn’t know how to slog, he’d have been dropped already. Truth is, you replace him with Hasnain and you end up with 3-4 number 11s in the tail and unfortunately the Pakistani batting top and middle order is not consistent enough to not rely on the number 8 batsman.

Hassan Ali could be a superior like for like replacement. Don’t know anyone else who can swing a bat and makes it to the team on merit, the closest you have is Faheem Ashraf.

Until one of them makes a case for contention, Wahab isn’t going anywhere.

 

[Pacy with wisdom]

He was horribly out of rhythm. I have not seen him bowl any slower than he did in this game.
Even Shaheen was short of gallop and wasnt attacking the crease like he normally does.

It is clear that the 14 day quarantine has had a detrimental effect because everybody lacked co-ordination in their movements.

 

[Hyperion66]

I will never understand why Pak keeps selecting this guy, dude is just a terrible bowler, Pakistan's Rubel Hossain.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

He has become a bit better at the death but he is still a liability with the new ball or till the death overs.
Especially on fast pitches like these in NZ, his short length stock deliveries are easily dispatched to the backside boundaries. His lack of conventional swing means he could be easily hit for fours with fielding restrictions in place.

He may still be a good third bowling option in Tests on dry wickets of UAE and SL, and a possibly 4th pace bowling option in SENA.

But I think it's about time we need to taper off his presence as it isn't going to go anywhere and he is too old now.

His fitness and improved batting ability are the two things that he just needs to be commended for. Even that was done majorly with Zalmi coaching staff.

 

[Hasan123]

No we can't. But he has performed well recently and we won't drop him .

 

[hitthestump]

He's fine. Has a good slower ball, yorker and is handy with the bat down the order.

As long as he isn't coming in during the powerplay he'll do his job suitably well in t20's.

 

[Mirpur express]

He has done well recently so I’ll give him the benefit of doubt this time but he needs to get his act together soon or he can be a real liability , we should really be using Hasnain tbh

 

[offstump]

Looked out of shape as well. Give Hasnain a run instead.. not sure what mgmt is thinking they’ve been observing him throughout and should have known he’s out of shape and form.

 

[Kroll]

The batting is more to blame than Wahab. You can't post 150s and expect to defend that against the elite sides, although Misbah has other ideas.

Even the best bowlers can get spanked in T20. I didn't actually want Wahab back for the last WC but there was a big clamour to get him back, even on these boards.

We just need to accept that this is Wahab, he can be brilliant on his day but more often mediocre than not.

 

[Rayyman]

He has too many bad days.

Pakistan cannot afford his inconsistency especially in T20Is.

 

[gazza619]

I want to get into the brain of team management and understand his selection for 2nd T20.

 

[Ashraful_Rox]

He cost Pakistan a lot of matches

 

[ads101]

The main thing you have to do as a bowler is keep down runs in T20s or even ODIs. It's not about wickets, you're rarely going to bowl a side out. And is much easier to choke runs, building pressure, forcing a batsman to go for a shot which leads to a wicket. Time and again we're let down by the third fast bowlers who releases all the pressure and leaks runs. And then blame the guys who kept it economical but couldn't get a wicket because the opposition chose to play them out and not take risks against them, as they could target the other bowlers instead.

Riaz isn't capable of that. We've just lost a bowler in Amir that was. The rest bar Shaheen are similar to Riaz, can't control runs for their life, just bowl out their overs, hoping for wickets. Even if you take 3 wickets, if you go for 9 runs an over, they're still likely to post a good score.

We need bowlers who are consistent and accurate.

 

[Titan24]

I guess Wahab is almost done at international if not done (Well you never know with the management). He is 35 and will be turning 36 next year.